Whole-House Humidification Can Keep Your Cincinnati Home Comfortable

Category: Tips for Your Home

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When life gets uncomfortable this time of year, low home humidity is often to blame. Cold air doesn’t hold moisture well, so falling temperatures bring reduced humidity levels. Running a furnace amplifies the problem, making it easy for indoor humidity to plummet below 30 percent. Whole-house humidification is the effective solution to ensure comfort throughout the heating season.

How Whole-House Humidifiers Work

A whole-home humidifier is installed right into the HVAC system and connected to the water supply. The appliance converts water into vapor, which gets distributed whenever the blower pumps heated air through the ductwork. You control the humidity level via the thermostat or a separate humidistat.

These humidifiers work for both new and existing homes, and there are compatible models available for forced-air, radiant and baseboard heating systems. Along with enhanced comfort, adding a humidifier offers other benefits:

Better health. Dry air can cause itchy skin, nasal irritation, sore throats and other uncomfortable symptoms. It can worsen allergies, asthma and other respiratory problems, as well. Since many viruses and bacteria thrive in dry conditions, low indoor humidity increases the risk of infections, colds and the flu. Restoring balanced humidity can help prevent all of these potential health issues.

Home preservation. A lack of indoor humidity can wreak havoc on wood floors and trim, drywall, paint, musical instruments and furniture. Static electricity typically develops too, causing unpleasant shocks and ruining costly home electronics. Introducing a constant, controlled supply of moisture can keep your home and its contents safe from dry air damage.

Energy savings. To compensate for the lack of warmth in drier air, many homeowners dial up the thermostat setting. Unfortunately, this increases energy consumption and not comfort. When you have a whole-house humidifier that regulates the amount of moisture in the air, you’ll feel warmer. You can even save energy and money by turning the thermostat setting down instead of up. Every single degree reduction can lower your seasonal energy bills by 4 percent.